my trip to san diego (or preaching on the burning shore redux)

by Max

I had an awesome trip last week. Can you guess where I went? If you guessed San Diego, you're right! I went with Grandma, and it was so much fun. On Thursday, I got home from school and my family and I headed to the Taltree Arboretum to meet Aunt Erin, Lucy and Richie, and Grandma. We all had a blast there. But instead of going home with my family, I went back to Chicagoland with Aunt Erin and Grandma. I stayed the night in Naperville, then the next day Grandpa took Grandma and me to the airport. We got our bags checked, and although security took forever, we finally boarded the plane. The plane taking off was fun, but the rest was boring. Four hours later we arrived in San Diego! We were almost 45 minutes early, but my Uncle M and cousin G got there to pick us up.

We went back to Uncle M's house in El Cajon to change into shorts, because it was really, really blazing hot in California. Seriously, it was like 100 degrees there. After that, we attempted to go to the San Diego Botanic Garden, but traffic was so bad that we failed. We went out to dinner instead, and it was yummy. The next day, Grandma and I got up early because we were on Chicago/Indiana time, but Uncle M and G were still asleep. So Grandma and I took a walk. We saw an orange tree and almost picked an orange to bring back to Mom, but we didn't want to steal someone else's fruit.

Once Uncle M and G were up, we headed northwest to Palomar Mountain. There is an observatory there, and it was really cool. It was on top of a mountain, so you could see a long way in all directions.

After Palomar, we went back to Uncle M's house for lunch, then we went to the beach at the Pacific Ocean. I have been to the Atlantic Ocean several times, in Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida, but I had not ever seen the Pacific. I was really excited. The waves were really huge, and G and I had lots of fun.

The next morning, we went off-roading in Uncle M's truck. It was fun, but Uncle M drove through a big mud puddle and turned his green truck into a brown truck. After that, we had lunch, then we drove to San Diego to see the old Navy ships like the aircraft carrier Midway. It was really big and really cool.

On our last day in California, we got up and tried again to go to the San Diego Botanic Garden, and this time we succeeded! It was really cool, with lots of cacti, flowers, succulents, and other plants we don't have back in Indiana. There was a waterfall in the middle of the gardens, and it was awesome. We took lots of pictures.

After that, we went to the airport to catch our flight back to Chicago. I had a great time, and I was sad I had to leave :(  But I was glad to get home. This was an awesome trip.